Recycling

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Cllr. David Harrison, launched a stinging attack on the Tory Portfolio holder for the Environment, Cllr. Michael Thierry, for failing to stop repeated mistakes being made when communicating with residents over the issue of recyling household waste.

Councillor Harrison referred to a glossy Council guide that had recently been distributed to 10,000 New Forest homes. Under an article titled, “What a load of rubbish”, it referred to householders helping to cut down 48,000 tonnes of waste by separating papers, metals, plastic and glass into clear sacks”.

The local Tory MP was present, looking distinctly uncomfortable as the Tory Leader acknowledged that a grave error had been made in suggesting that glass could be put in the clear sacks. He was forced into an apology and revealed that the remaining distribution of the council guide had been abandoned.

Councillor Harrison also referred to similar misleading advice given by the Authority on the question of recycling copies of Yellow Pages. He pointed out that the advice given by New Forest District Council was that the copies of Yellow Pages could not be recycled “due to the yellow dye which caused problems at the processing plant”. In fact, Yellow Pages can be recycled and there are special paper banks in local towns where these can be deposited.

Cllr. Harrison summed up his stinging attack with the words “It’s muddled messages from a muddled administration. The one thing we don’t want recycled is the same old lame excuses. The people we serve deserve very much better”.